


Drunken Confessions

by GobletGirl



Category: Hunger Games Series - All Media Types, Hunger Games Trilogy - Suzanne Collins
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-29
Updated: 2016-07-29
Packaged: 2018-07-27 14:31:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,535
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7622275
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GobletGirl/pseuds/GobletGirl
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Katniss drunkenly confesses something to Peeta, he has to figure out what he will do with this information.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Drunken Confessions

**Author's Note:**

> This was originally written as a three-part drabble series on tumblr but I decided to combine it into a oneshot and post here. 
> 
> Big thanks to papofglencoe and everlylark for their betaing and suggestions!
> 
> Let me know what you thought! I am also gobletgirl on tumblr.

Peeta grunted as he hoisted his drunk stumbling girlfriend up the stairs to their apartment. He was having a serious talk with Jo tomorrow. She knew Katniss was a lightweight and yet she still, apparently, poured shots down her throat at Annie’s bachelorette party. This resulted in the drunken phone call from Katniss at 2:30 in the morning to come get her from Annie’s place.

“Peeta...smell...cinnamon...home,” Katniss muttered as she sniffed his chest.

He shook his head and said, “Almost there, Katniss. Just a few more steps.” As they approached their door, he shifted her in his arms to get his keys free from his pocket. He was opening the door when he heard Katniss singing softly under her breath. This made Peeta smile. She so rarely sang but it was one of Peeta’s favorite things about her. Her voice was simply amazing. He would stand outside a room for hours just to listen to her singing because if she saw him listening she would blush and stop immediately. 

As he led her into their apartment and sat her down on the couch, he finally heard the words of the song she was singing.

_“Hey baby. I think I wanna marry you.”_

He stood there completely confused for a moment. Katniss had always been strictly opposed to marriage and had scoffed the first time they had heard that song on the radio so it seemed an odd choice for her drunken self to be singing. He decided to not try and analyze the way his drunk girlfriend’s mind worked and instead headed towards the kitchen to get her some water and ibuprofen to put on her nightstand before putting her to bed. 

As he entered the living room, Katniss looked up at him from her place on the couch and smiled. “There you are. I thought I had lost you.”

He chuckled, “No, you certainly didn’t lose me. But come on, let’s get you to bed.” He made his way over to her and helped her off the couch by putting his arm around her to steady her.

“You know Peeta, I just love you. Jo calls you my bread boy,” she chuckled to herself as she said this. Peeta just smiled and continued guiding her to the bedroom. He led her towards the bed, set the water and medicine he was holding on the nightstand and turned to get her one of his old t-shirts out of the dresser. He knew she much preferred to sleep in his t-shirts over anything else, which had become blatantly apparent when the shirts had started migrating from his drawers to hers. Not that he minded. He turned back around to find Katniss sitting on the bed in just her underwear holding her dress in her hands. 

“Here’s a shirt for you to sleep in.” He held out the shirt to her and reached for the dress so he could put it away for her. However, he stopped as she looked up at him with a very odd expression on her face. 

“You know, she’s right. You are my bread boy.” She continued to stare at him for a moment before she took the shirt from him and pulled it over her head. As her face came back into view, she simply smiled at him and clumsily scooted up the bed to crawl under the covers. 

Peeta didn’t know what to make of her behavior. In their 4 years of dating, he had certainly seen her drunk before but she had never acted like this. She held things very close to her chest and while he knew she loved him deeply, she rarely expressed those things with words. She always joked that he was the eloquent one and she just sounded like a bumbling baboon when trying to express her feelings. 

In fact, the first time she had told him she loved him she had said it in a rush and all in one breath while looking at her shoes, “Imightkindabeinlovewithyou.” He thought he had misheard her but there was no mistaking the blush permeating her cheeks. So he had smiled and taken her face in his hands to force her to look at him. 

“You do?” he asked softly. She had merely nodded in response. He felt his grin widen even further before claiming her lips with his. That had been a good night, the best night, in his opinion. 

He reminded himself of his earlier resolution to not try and figure out her drunken ramblings. He walked over to the side of the bed and sat down next to her. She appeared to already be nodding off. So, he brushed the hair out of her eyes, leaned over to kiss her forehead and whispered into her hair, “Goodnight love.”

As he stood to get ready for bed. He felt her grab his arm. “Stay with me.”

“Always.” He took off his jeans and climbed over her to settle into his side of the bed. He gathered her in his arms and pulled her into his chest. He heard her sigh as she nuzzled deeper into his embrace. 

Her next words, however, took his breath away. She sleepily murmured, “I wouldn’t mind being Mrs. Bread Boy.” And then as softly as before she started singing again, _“Hey baby. I think I wanna marry you. Is it the look in your eyes? Or is it…”_ she trailed off as sleep claimed her but Peeta was still wide awake.

His mind was whirling. If there was anything he knew about Katniss, it was that she never said things she didn’t mean, even while drunk. She had always told him marriage and kids weren’t in her plan. But he hadn’t cared. He had told her that he would be her boyfriend forever as long as they could be together. Nevertheless, he would love nothing more than to make her his wife. Could she have changed her mind? He would ask her in a heartbeat if he thought that was what she really wanted. 

He promised himself that tomorrow he would have a little chat with Jo and it wasn’t going to be about plowing his girlfriend with shots anymore. No, they were going to have a chat about rings.

He pulled her impossibly closer and tried to identify the emotion coursing through him as he drifted off. Hope. That was the emotion. He had hope.

* * *

 

Peeta sat nervously toying with the paper sleeve around his tea while he waited for Jo to meet him at the little coffee shop close to both of their jobs. It had been two days, two painfully long days, since Katniss had drunkenly admitted that she wouldn’t mind being ‘Mrs. Bread Boy.’ 

The next morning Peeta woke to her groaning and trying to burrow further under the covers to escape the light that filtered in through the window. She had gratefully accepted the water and ibuprofen he had placed on the nightstand the night before and declared, “I’m going to kick Jo’s ass the next time I see her.”

He had nervously chuckled before trying to determine exactly how much she remembered from the night before. As it turned out, not a whole lot. “I remember you half-carrying me up the stairs to the apartment and then some other random bits and pieces from the night, but it all kinda blurs together,” she sheepishly admitted when he asked. 

So here he was sitting in a coffee shop waiting for her best friend, who could hopefully shed some light on what he should do with his newfound information. He had already spent hours agonizing over all the different avenues that lay before him. 

He could flat out ask if her views on marriage had changed, but that ran the risk of an argument. Or he could just pop the question, but that ran the risk of rejection. He could somehow casually bring up marriage in conversation to see if sober Katniss did indeed agree with drunk Katniss, but he had no idea how to _casually_ bring up the idea of marriage. No earthly idea. 

“Hey, Bread Boy. What’s got you looking so nervous?” Jo plopped down across from him, pushing her sunglasses up on top of her head as she did. 

“Always straight to the point with you, isn’t it Jo?”

“You know it,” she grinned. “I figured from the text you sent that this has something to do with Brainless. Don’t tell me there’s trouble in paradise? Because I have to say drunk Katniss can sure talk when she wants to, and it certainly didn’t sound like there was trouble from what she was saying.” She waggled her eyebrows suggestively. 

Peeta felt himself turning pink. “Geez, Jo. No, there’s no trouble,” he paused. “But she did say something when she got home that night I wanted to talk to you about.” He looked up at her, but she just continued to gaze at him, clearly waiting for him to continue. He cleared his throat, “So, you know, she was pretty drunk when I got her home.” 

Jo scoffed, “Yeah. Maybe I shouldn’t have pushed those last four shots on her.” Her grin, however, didn’t show any remorse.

Peeta rolled his eyes but continued as if she hadn’t spoken, “Well, she said some things that I’m not sure how to take. I mean, first, she started singing that Bruno Mars song. You know the one...‘Marry You.’ Then, she starts going on about how you call me ‘her bread boy’ and about how I really am ‘her bread boy.’ But then...then...she out of the blue says she wouldn’t mind being ‘Mrs. Bread Boy.’ I mean...what? She’s always said she never wants to get married, so did she change her mind? Or was it just drunken ramblings? But you know Katniss...she never says anything she doesn’t mean. So what _does_ it mean?” He took a large breath, realizing he hadn’t taken one during his entire spiel. 

Jo simply stared at him before laughing. “Of course she wants to marry you. Maybe instead of Mr. and Mrs. Bread Boy, you guys should be Mr. and Mrs. Brainless. You’d be cool with taking her name, right?” She chuckled to herself before noticing the look on his face and taking pity on him. Schooling her features, she said, “Peeta, that girl is so in love with you she thinks the sun rises and sets with you. And I am fairly certain you feel the same way. To be honest, it is kinda sickening to watch at times. Nevertheless, you two were made for each other. Of course she wants to marry you. I know, I know,” she cut him off before he could interrupt her. “Her past views on marriage were not the most...optimistic, but I think she has really started to change her mind in the past year or so.”

Peeta studied her face, looking for any sign of the joking nature Jo was so infamous for among their group of friends. But he saw only sincerity reflected back at him. He sighed, “What makes you think that? You clearly thought before I brought this up that she wanted to marry me. So why did you think that?”

“I know she was always so opposed to marriage because of what happened with her mom after her dad died, but I honestly think meeting you is what started to change it all. But more so in the past year, with Annie and Finn getting engaged, and then Gale proposing last month to Madge...well, I think it all just got her thinking. She never expected Gale to settle down, but when he proposed it really threw her.” She paused as if debating something with herself and sighed, “Listen, I probably shouldn’t be telling you this, but we both know if you want Katniss to express herself fully, it doesn’t hurt to get bit of alcohol in her. She mentioned she had been thinking about marriage a lot lately, and she said she wasn’t so sure anymore why she’d ever thought she shouldn’t marry you.” 

He couldn’t believe what he heard. He knew the news of Gale and Madge’s engagement had shocked her and that she had acted a little weird in the weeks following it. But he had thought it was due to the fact that her childhood best friends were engaged when she had just adjusted to them dating, as it had been pretty quick courtship. After only six months of dating, Gale had popped the question. So Peeta had assumed, after the couple had told everyone of their engagement, that Katniss’s odd behavior was due to the relative quickness and not because she was seriously reconsidering her views on marriage. 

“Talk to her, Peeta. I’m sure if you ask, she would say yes. She loves you, and whether or not you are married doesn’t really impact how much she loves you, which I think Brainless finally figured out.” 

He saw the sincerity of her words reflected in her face. He smiled, “Maybe I should have a ring when I talk to her...you know, just in case. Want to help me with that?”

She grinned. “Of course, Bread Boy. Lead the way.”

* * *

 

“What about this one?” Peeta turned his head to see Jo pointing to what appeared to be a large oval cut diamond ring that probably cost more than Peeta made in half a year.

He gave her an incredulous look. “Jo, let’s be realistic. She would never like that, and I couldn’t afford it even if she did.” He went back to scanning the display cases in front of him. 

“Welcome. Welcome. Welcome. My name is Effie, and I want to welcome you to Capitol Jewelry. What can I help you two with today?”

“Uh…” Peeta stared in shock at the exuberant woman standing before him. She had bright orange hair and an even brighter purple dress that Peeta couldn’t even figure out how she managed to get into. To say the color combination and overall ensemble was a shock to his system was an understatement. He shook his head to clear away these thoughts and said, “Uh, I was hoping to find an engagement ring for my girlfriend.”

Effie beamed at him. “Well, I am sure we can find something she will just love.” She turned to Jo, “What is it you like, my dear?”

“No, it’s not—”

“Well,” Jo spoke over him, essentially cutting him off, “I’m more into the darker metals. You know, tungsten, titanium, those sorts of things. I’m more of a darker beauty to offset his golden boy persona.” As she spoke she had moved to his side, looping her arm with his and smiling up at him.

Peeta rolled his eyes at her before turning back to Effie. “It’s not for her. She’s just a friend of mine and my girlfriend’s. She’s supposed to be helping me pick one out. As for Katniss, I don’t think she would go for the traditional diamond. Do you have any rings without diamonds? And something simple. She isn’t a very extravagant person.”

Effie smiled at them, albeit it looked a little forced now, and led them down the counter to a smaller display of rings. “These are our more nontraditional engagement rings.” She lifted the set out of the display case so they could examine them more closely. 

Peeta’s eye was immediately drawn to one of the rings. It had a single pearl surrounded by bands of platinum, mounted on a simple band. It’s like it had been made for Katniss, unassuming and timeless. He reached down to pick it up and examined it more closely. “This one. It’s perfect,” he whispered. 

Jo looked over his shoulder at the ring. She nodded and said, “She’ll love it. It screams ‘Brainless.’”

Peeta smiled at her and turned back to Effie’s slightly baffled expression at Jo’s term of endearment. He grinned, “I’ll take it.”

* * *

 

Peeta checked the lasagna in the oven before turning his attention to the French bread he had picked up that morning from his family’s bakery. He sat down at the counter and started to butter the bread. Given the mindlessness of the task, his mind started to wander to his plans for the evening. He was finally going to broach the subject of marriage with Katniss, possibly even ask her to marry him. It had been a week since her drunken confession, and tonight seemed like the perfect time to bring up the topic. She had spent the day with the girls getting their final fittings for Annie’s wedding next weekend. Hopefully, she wouldn’t be too burnt out on wedding talk. Okay, so maybe tonight wasn’t the best time after all. Maybe he should wait.

Peeta chastised himself for _again_ second guessing his plan. Not that it was much of a plan, but he had to stop second guessing himself or Katniss was going to realize something was up. He had already been on edge for the past week—no need to prolong the torture. He need to just rip off the band-aid, so to speak, and ask her, or at the very least talk to her about it.

He had just finished buttering the last slices of bread when he heard her key in the front door. He wrapped the bread in foil as he listened to her drop her things in the front hall and call out, “Peeta?”

“In the kitchen,” he replied, placing the bread on the top of the oven to put in just before the lasagna finished. He turned around to see Katniss standing just a few feet behind him. He started, “You know, you are too quiet for your own good sometimes.” 

She chuckled before closing the distance between them and wrapping her arms around him. Reaching up, she gave him a kiss, but when she tried to pull back Peeta didn’t let her. Winding one arm around her waist and weaving the other through her hair, he pulled her closer, running his tongue along the seam of her lips to seek entrance. She moaned into his mouth as their tongues met. Peeta sighed. He could kiss her for days, and he already felt himself calming down. This was Katniss. They could get through anything, marriage or no marriage. 

He slowly pulled back and smiled when he saw the slightly dazed expression on her face. She grinned at him before she settled her head against his chest. They stood there for a moment holding each other before she broke the silence. “Dinner smells good. What is it?”

“Lasagna and garlic bread, which I actually need to put in the oven,” he said, regretfully releasing her from his arms. “Everything should be done in about ten to fifteen minutes.” He turned back to her, “You want to set the table while I get the salad together?” She smiled and nodded at him. 

He pulled the salad stuff out of the refrigerator and placed it on the counter to put it all together. From there he could see Katniss setting the table. He had to pause to stare at her for a moment and praise the heavens for the millionth time that she was his. He continued to steal glances at her as he finished making the salad. Taking the bowl over to the table, he set it down. As he passed Katniss, he leaned down to kiss her exposed shoulder. She turned and gave him a sly smile. But before she could do or say anything else, the buzzer on the oven went off. 

Dinner was fairly normal for them. They talked about their days, their friends’ upcoming wedding, and their plans for the week. After they had cleaned up, they settled onto the couch, Katniss’s head in his lap as he flipped through their Netflix queue trying to find something to watch. 

“How about Friends?” Peeta questioned.

“Old reliable. Sounds good to me,” Katniss replied.

He hit play and settled back into the couch, his hands reaching immediately for her hair that was fanned out along his legs. He ran his fingers through the strands and focused more on the girl in his lap than on the tv. These were his favorite types of nights, the ones where they would just sit or lie together. He always wanted to freeze these moments and live in them forever. He had told Katniss that once. She had simply looked at him before smiling and saying, “I’ll allow it.” 

“I’ve always loved this episode.” Katniss’s voice broke Peeta out of his reverie. He nodded, not even realizing she couldn’t see him from her position. His hands never stopped their movement in her hair as he tried to decide how to broach the subject of marriage. The odds seemed to be in his favor however, as he realized the episode they were watching was the one where Phoebe and Mike get married. “That’s how you should do it.”

“Do what?” Peeta questioned. 

“Weddings,” Katniss replied. Peeta couldn’t believe his luck. “Just the simple ceremony. Some friends. Not a huge production.”

Peeta’s hands stilled in her hair. “So, all this wedding planning with Annie hasn’t brought you around to large weddings?”

Katniss laughed. “Hell no. You know that’s not me.” She glanced up at him and Peeta saw that same look from the week before, the one he couldn’t quite place, albeit a little less glazed over version. Maybe she remembered more than she had let on. 

“So, what is it you would want?” Peeta questioned quietly. 

Katniss moved onto her back so she could look up at him without straining her neck. She studied him for a moment before answering. When she did her voice was barely above a whisper. “You. Me. Our meadow. Maybe some friends.”

Peeta couldn’t help the grin that spread across his face. It sounded perfect to him. He thought for a moment and decided he would use their game to make sure he was understanding exactly what she was saying. 

Their game had begun early on in their relationship. They had both been through a lot growing up. His mother had been abusive. Her father had died and she had been forced to take care of her sister when her mom had checked out. Early in their relationship, she had woken him with what had appeared to be a very vivid nightmare. He’d held her close and whispered over and over, “It’s not real Katniss. It’s not real.” Once she calmed down, she had started to ask him relatively innocuous questions. About their first meeting, their first date, their first kiss, their first time. He answered all the questions the same way: real or not real. Thus, their game had been born. Anytime either one of them had a nightmare or even a bad day, they would play their game. Now sometimes they played just for fun. It had become their private little ritual. 

His voice came out rough, nothing more than a whisper. “You want to marry me. Real or not real?”

“Real.”

He moved, motioning for her to sit up. She did, sitting on her knees next to him. He turned so he was facing her and reached into his pocket to pull out the ring he had bought with Jo. Katniss’s eye grew wide at the sight of the ring, and she looked back at him in surprise, with love and hope in her eyes. 

“Katniss, you know I love you more than life itself and would be perfectly content to be your boyfriend until the day I die. But to make you my wife—” his voice broke off, and he stopped for a second to take a breath, trying to compose the raging emotions inside him. He looked back into her gray eyes and found his resolve once more. “Katniss Everdeen, will you marry me?” He held the ring between his fingers. 

She glanced briefly at the ring before looking back into his eyes. Her face slowly broke out into a smile as she nodded. “Of course, Peeta.” She launched herself at him, burying her face into his neck. He wrapped his arms around her and crushed her to him, pulling back slightly to bring her face to his. He kissed her forehead, then her nose before finally taking her lips in his. Sucking her bottom lip into his mouth, he deepened the kiss. He couldn’t believe this. He was kissing his fiancée. Katniss Everdeen was his fiancée. The kisses quickly became more frantic, and Peeta, afraid to lose his grip on the ring, pulled away. Katniss whimpered at the loss of contact, and he chuckled quietly at her. Taking her left hand in his, he gently placed the ring on her finger. They both stared down at their joined hands for a moment. 

“It’s beautiful, Peeta.”

“I saw it and thought it was perfect. It screamed Katniss. Or as Jo said, ‘It screamed Brainless.’”

Katniss looked up, startled. “Jo knew about this?” 

Peeta rubbed the back of his neck. “Well, I went to her after last weekend. I don’t know if you remember, but you mentioned wanting to be ‘Mrs. Bread Boy,’ and well, given your previous views on marriage I wasn’t entirely sure what to make of it. I thought Jo might have some insight,” he admitted sheepishly. “Please, don’t be mad. I just didn’t know how to bring it up with you. I didn’t want to make you mad by bringing it up if you still never wanted to get married.”

“I’m not mad. Just a bit surprised is all.” She looked down at their joined hands and then looked back at him. He could have sworn he saw embarrassment in her eyes. “I might remember a bit more about that night then I originally let on.” He looked at her, begging her to continue with his eyes. She sighed, “I remembered singing that horrible song.” 

Peeta couldn’t help the laugh that escaped him. She smiled, “Okay, so maybe it isn’t _horrible_. But I also remembered telling you that I wouldn’t mind being ‘Mrs. Bread Boy.’” She used air quotes as she said this. “But I didn’t know how to bring it up after that night. You know how I am with feelings. Bumbling baboon over here.”

He smiled at her, bringing his hands up to frame her face. “Well, you’re _my_ bumbling baboon.” She laughed as he brought their lips together one more time. This kiss was slower and more sensual than the last. He leaned back and saw the fire he felt reflected in her eyes. 

He silently stood and pulled her up with him. They stood staring at one another for another moment before she wound her arms around his neck. He placed his hands underneath her thighs, lifting her up. She instinctively locked her legs around his waist as he held her up. Slowly, he started walking back to their bedroom. He firmly believed that tonight had quickly taken the place as the best night of his life—and it had just gotten started.


End file.
